Inside the realm
by x0chu0x
Summary: Life was strange. He was now, Rauru the sage, protector of the Temple of Time, had a country to defend against an evil king and to manage his mission, he had … a comatose boy to baby-sit. For the next seven years. Three-shot
1. Chapter 1

Existence was... strange.

Especially when you are a sage in Hyrule and even more so when Hyrule is at war.

Rauru the sage, protector of the temple of time, tried to pinpoint exactly when his existence escaped his control entirely. He didn't dare using the word 'life' anymore, even in his own head. Because frankly, he wasn't sure if he was really alive, properly speaking or not.

The man looked around him at the glowing place he now called _his_ place and remembered how at first the constant glowing had unsettled him.

"_Never gonna be able to sleep."_

Of course, he got used to it. You get used to everything with enough time at your disposal. And Rauru had time at his disposal. Kind of too much to be honest. That's how it worked apparently, you get chosen as a sage, you become immortal, you get unbelievable amount of powers, more wisdom than any being could ever acquire even after a long and full life, and … a glowing place. Somehow, he felt slightly tricked. As if, that little detail should have been mentioned to him beforehand. But then again, if it was always the little details that were kept hidden in a contract, right ?

He remembered a time when he lived peacefully in Castle Town. He used to like wandering in the streets, buying Lon Lon milk, and shooing the dogs away.

He shook himself out of his memories. It would do him no good. He had had a peaceful life, no need to dwell in the past. It would only make him grumpy and such a thing wouldn't do. He was now, Rauru the sage, and he had a country to protect. And to manage his mission, he had … a comatose boy to baby-sit.

Sometimes he really wondered which wrong turn he took in his life to end up here. Which Goddess he angered.

Of course it was entirely possible that the three of them were at cause. But it was never too safe to accuse all the Goddesses at the same time. You never know against which rough surface your toes could end up being squashed. Even in a seemingly empty and flat room like the one he now inhabited. Yes, the Goddesses liked to make their point known and screw logic if it didn't want to follow.

With dignity, he turned to the floating boy, a few meters from him.

He stood there, staring. Each day he spent in the glowing in-between realm that was his room strengthened his conviction in a belief that may not be as well spread as it should : the Great Three had a sense of humor. He would even go as far as to say that it was a particularly twisted sadistic sense of humor.

As he finally managed to bring himself to get closer, the words 'childish' and 'trollish' came to his mind but as they did, he tripped over thin air, and while trying to found back his balance, stepped on the hem of his robes and nearly chocked as the definitely non extensible fabric of his clothes made his collar dig into his throat.

Quickly righting himself up, Rauru mumbled something that might or might not have been "twisted sadists" but as no other immediate divine intervention came, it's hard to tell.

He finally reached the boy and frowned at his green clothes. He made a quick calculation of his chances to defeat the King of Evil in nothing but a skirt and a hat. Unable to oppose anything higher than a two to a one hundred – and he was being particularly generous on the boy – even with all his wisdom, Rauru decided that if he had to take care of this boy, some pants were in order. Even if it was only to wear under his skirt.

Feeling that it was the only thing he could do at the moment, the sage went to find a way to bring said pants _in_ his glowing room.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a reason why he had had no children or why none of his neighbors had ever asked him to watch over theirs and Rauru the sage, felt the weight of this reason on him as he lifted the sponge to the teenager's face.

He hesitated for a second and looked regretfully at the big goofy smile and large stupid eyes he had drawn on the face a few days prior. Oh well, he could always draw them again after he was done cleaning him. And maybe this time he would add whiskers on his cheeks.

Distractedly wiping away the ink, his mind went back to speech he had been trying to write for the last week. His 'Ganon took over the thrown of Hyrule' didn't sit well with him. He needed something more striking. He couldn't go with mediocre. Upon hearing it the Hero had to feel like going straight to the King of Evil to try and kill him with no care whatsoever for his well-being. It had to be epic. Uplifting. Inspiring. He knew what kind of emotion he was after but couldn't think of how to put it in words.

Rauru looked at half of the face the teenager.

"Don't you have any tips ?"

Only black drops of ink dripping down the teenager's face answered his question. Rauru was about to huff when it dawned on him.

He quickly let go of the sponge that splashed in the bucket of water at his feet, dried his hands on the front of the tunic of the teenager and rushed to the pile of papers in the corner of his glowing room. After picking up a quill he frantically searched for the bottle of ink and finding it, he promptly settled on the mountain of cushions and started writing.

The room around him that had, at some point, been empty now looked like a camp of Gerudo refugees. Papers littered the floor without weakening the glow of the room. Needles were lost in their mist and all sort of fabrics were piled in the middle of it from the time he had tried to sew something for his charge. After a few try he had realized that the boy was growing – as it kind of was the point of him staying here – and so making him nice clothes was kind of pointless. He only needed on good change for when he woke up and walked out of the realm.

Rauru still couldn't believe that with all his wisdom he hadn't been able to think about it before he made the first attempts at a tunic. Oh well, he was a Sage not a God plus no one cared anyway. At least now he knew how to bring things inside the realm. Because apparently, the Goddesses hadn't thought such knowledge could be useful to a Sage stuck _in_ the realm and needing to bring things from the _outside_ as said Sage hadn't anything with him inside. In consequences, they hadn't put it in the Sage's wisdom book.

His sarcastic "talk about great goddesses" was cut short by the tip of his quill snapping in two for no reason whatsoever and the ink that had been inside shooting, against all logic, _up_ straight into his right eye that wasn't even close to the hand holding the quill.

Grumbling something about learning from pain in self pity, Rauru rubbed his abused eye for the rest of the day and only remembered the next that he had been in the middle of trying to make the teenager that was supposed to become the Hero of Time clean.

As he said, there _was_ a reason why there hadn't been any children in his house when he had still been out there.


	3. Chapter 3

Rauru the sage, one of the seven great protectors of the holy land of Hyrule – or what was left of it – refused to think about what he just did.

However the pain in his back stubbornly refused to let him entirely forget about it. Not one to be brought down by the complains of his body, Rauru straightened himself in one quick movement, hearing the first three satisfactory little cracks of his spine as it righted itself. The fourth one, on the other hand, did not bring as much satisfaction as his brothers and left him hunched for the seven following days.

Din, how old he felt.

But he took comfort knowing that what had to be done, was indeed done. During his miserable week, he kept on looking back at the still sleeping young man and marveled at the snow-white tight pants and long-sleeved shirt that could be seen under the forest-green outer clothes of his charge, with no small amount of pride. The two colors clashed elegantly giving the future hero as much of a refined appearance as the little green skirt allowed.

However it was the young man's sturdy leather boots and gloves that were his pride and joy. He spent so long sewing the cursed things they better be useful.

"And you better take good care of them young man."

A few months later, he will notice the Hero wearing new silver gloves and lead boots as said Hero come to be taken back in time and will refuse to talk to Saria, Darunia and Ruto for a few weeks. And a month or two after they were back on speaking terms, the Hero's new golden gloves and wingy boots will trigger something that some might call a deep all-consuming depression in the sage and from which he will only be pulled by the other sages claiming he had a duty to Hyrule.

But for now he was still blissfully unaware of such things and kept on admiring his work. The big day was coming, he could feel it in every fiber of his body. Soon the young man would awake and he would once again be alone in his glowing place. The idea might have arose a sense of loss in an ordinary man but Rauru was no ordinary man and couldn't wait to get ride of him. He was Rauru the sage, keeper of the temple of time, one of the great protectors of the holy land of Hyrule directly chosen by the Goddesses themselves and had just spent the last seven years of his existence bathing, feeding and clothing an unconscious boy in a skirt. Granted, the boy was supposed to be the Hero of Time, but STILL.

He might not mention it but he was convinced that if the other six sages didn't answer his call seven years ago, it had more to do with the fact that they knew what would await them (and hadn't bothered to tell him) than with the King of Evil or his monsters.

It was not that he didn't understand their choice. Had he been warned too, he would have done the same thing. He just _really_ resented them for having a choice when he hadn't. But anyway, he had gotten used to the monologue type of conversation. He even could safely say that he was an expert at it because being alone or sharing a room with an unconscious floating body and a sleeping fairy were rather similar experiences and that he would rather choose the first option.

Months later, Rauru will be joined by Saria, the Sage of the Forest, Darunia, the Sage of Fire, Ruto, the Sage of Water, Impa, the Sage of Shadows, and Nabooru, the Sage of the Spirit. A Kokiri only wearing _forest-green clothes ,_ a _very talkative _Goron, a _princess-y_ Zora, a _broody_ Sheikah and a _Gerudo_ . And upon feeling his dreams of peaceful alone time going down the drain and realizing that he will have to spent a large part of eternity with these five, he will swear that he heard the Goddesses laughing at him.

But right now, all he could feel was the spell keeping the young man and the fairy asleep dissolving.

All he could swear hearing were the bells of destiny ringing. And all he could think was that now was his moment. After seven long years, he was finally about to assume his real role in Hyrule history !

Rauru cleared his throat, mumbled his carefully planned speech just to make sure he had it in mind, reminded himself to put some accents on some important parts and make a long pause after his "you are now an adult" sentence for dramatic effects. It was a one-time-thing after all, it had to perfect.

He then adjusted his belt, hurriedly slicked back his hair, puffed out his chest and buried his hands in his sleeves in what he felt would make a more striking sage-like first impression.

Show time.

In his most commanding voice, Rauru started with a "Awake Hero".


End file.
